You may be asking yourself why an item on volunteering is appearing under “What’s New” on our home page. After all, volunteering has been the sine qua non of 40Plus of Greater Washington since its founding in 1953. It is the center of everything we do.

We always have new volunteers stepping up to help in many ways and for many reasons. For most, we think it is because they both enjoy it and it makes them feel good. 40Plus volunteers have a special opportunity to touch the lives of an underserved group of people, many of whom arrive at 40Plus after a very frustrating time and with severely shaken self-confidence. The feedback that we get, suggests that our unique intensive program profoundly affects many of these people. So, while volunteering itself is not new, new volunteers bring fresh energy, ideas, and perspective to the mission.

But the real reason for this item under “What’s New”, is that we sometimes get new feedback that we weren’t expecting, and it touches us back in a profound way. In connection with our Annual Meeting and Celebration dinner, we received a very large donation from a graduate of the program a number of years ago. It was our very first donation in connection with this event. The donor took the time to include the following note:

I'm retired now, but when I was laid off around age 45, I was a lost soul until a friend told me about 40+. There, in a basement office…I found friends, support, and a framework from which I was able to venture out into the job market and reestablish myself as a person of worth and merit. I will never forget the blessings I received by being associated with 40+. I can't attend the "40+ Reignited" affair, but would like to help two members who might have trouble with tickets (and their guests) to attend. G-d bless you all!

For the “feel good” part of volunteering, it doesn’t get any better than this.

On Thursday, March 9, 40Plus held its first ever Resume Swap and Speed Networking event as an experiment during our evening networking session. The event was attended by about 40 people and about 30 participated in this new exercise. Preliminary feedback was very positive, but with some great suggestions about how to enhance the format. We will be refining the concept based on this feedback, and plan to host an even better event in a few months. Watch this space!

The event was designed to be fun, and also and to bring home certain truths about the way things work:

1.Employers and recruiters spend very little time reviewing a resume.

2.In most networking situations you have a very short time to make a good impression.

3.Making a good impression is easier if you are prepared to quickly and compellingly convey concrete achievements.

The skills to manage these realities are the heart of the 40Plus training curriculum which has been helping mid-career professionals find new opportunities since 1953.

Our event started out with one of our favorite sounds: the wonderful 40Plus ship’s bell sounded as a graduate of our most recent class, Edmund Fleet, has found a great new job and ‘rang in’ the event with panache. Our heartiest congratulations to Edmund. During the rest of the event, our Deputy Director got to commune with his inner 3-year old, ringing the bell repeatedly to move the participants from one task to the next as we rushed the participants through 5 rounds of very fast resume review and networking.

Bummed because you can't get to attend some of those great monday morning workshops because of your schedule or job commitments? Did you know that 40 Plus of Greater Washington, D.C. has an evening series that features outstanding speakers and networking opportunities? Clear your calendar for “Networking with Purpose” on February 16th, 2017.

This next event will feature John Wilhelm, who will share his experience using metrics to plan a successful job search and more. Join us for another great session. Register early, because space is limited. Also, follow@40PlusDC on Twitterso you don’t miss any upcoming events. Join the conversation on Facebook to share your best takeaways from workshop sessions and share snapshots.

Save the date - Wednesday, March 29th, 2017 - for the annual 40 Plus Appreciation Dinner &Annual Membership Meeting. Don’t miss the chance to participate in the silent and live auction action. Care to donate a prize for the auction? Stay tuned for more developments.

The Board of Directors for 40 Plus of Greater Washington is happy to announce that 40 Plus is reaching another milestone this October: we are moving to the Foundation Center on K Street! Coincidentally, we first moved in to Webster House 40+ years ago—and it has been a good home these forty plus years. However, we now have a wonderful opportunity to grow as an organization through our move to Foundation Center-DC as a sub-tenant in their regional office space. This move will allow us to have the space to offer new services to our membership, and most importantly, our relationship with the Foundation Center will increase our visibility and capability as an organization.

We are very excited about this new move and what it will mean to the 40 Plus community—we like to think of it as“40 Plus Re-imagined!”Please join the Board of Directors and myself in celebrating our new home at an Open House on Monday, October 17th, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM at our new office, 1627 K Street NW, Suite 300, Washington DC. Immediately afterward, Mike Bruni, Director of Talent Acquisition at SC3, will be our guest speaker starting at 11:00 AM for our Monday Morning meeting.

A message from Kim Patton, Director of Foundation Center Northeast

I am pleased to welcome 40 Plus of Greater Washington as subtenants of Foundation Center-DC. We take great pride in our work as capacity builders for the nonprofit sector and the relationship with 40 Plus will be a great example of how we can foster and help develop the capacity of an organization like 40 Plus who is looking to increase their visibility and programmatic goals.

Foundation Center and 40 Plus share a common vision of increasing opportunity and transforming lives through knowledge, education and training. We know that your job search training program is highly regarded by your membership, and we are excited that you will now be offering this wonderful program in our Learning and Resource Center. Welcome to your new home!